Tracing Addresses

Census records and most electoral registers are listed by address so it can be very helpful if you know where your ancestors lived at a particular date. One thing to bear in mind is that streets were often renamed and/or renumbered at a later date.

It is possible to find addresses from sources such as birth, marriage and death certificates, wills and trade directories. The closer the certificate etc. is to the date of the census, the more chance there is of finding the family still at the same address.
Families often moved around much more than you might expect - analysis of the 1851 census has found than more than half of those listed were not still living in the place of their birth.